Saturday, September 13, 2008

Seriously.., Who knew canning was such a process?!?!?!

My very generous neighbors gave us a box a pears from their trees this past week. Let me just say..., I hate pears. It's the texture that completely grosses me out. The taste is fine. I'll admit.., I'm a horrible mother and wife because both my husband and son love pears and I never buy them. So with a box of free pears in hand, I, in all my naivety, thought how great they would be to can. I've never really canned. I mean.., I've sat in my sister's kitchen chatting and pretended to watch and learn..., but I had no idea what it all entail. My sister, Renee, volunteered the better part of her Saturday to show me how. I did actually listened this time and I think I have it all down. The process in and of itself is fairly easy. However, the washing and peeling and cutting.., etc takes forever and a day. Mason was a huge help...., in eating the pears that is. His latest thing he enjoys doing is sitting on the kitchen counters while I cook. I love it because I remember doing the same thing with my mom.
Do you see how pretty the bottles turned out? I was quite impressed. And yes.., that is my belly sticking out. It's popping out there faster this time. I ended the day with 16 jars of pears and 10 small jars of pear sauce. I kind of made the recipe up a bit for that one. Picture apple sauce but with pears and you have 'pear sauce'. By 6 in the evening, I couldn't handle peeling another pear and just want to be done and the pear sauce was an easy alternative. Next month will be applesauce and salsa. I need to rest up so I'm ready for it.

7 comments:

Stacy and Mike said...

You are a "pear canning goddess" in my eyes. Impressive!

Michele said...

Those look fantastic! Oh, and you have the cutest baby in the world! Did you get a new curtain?

Kanabites said...

They look great. I think it is pretty funny when you step back and say, wow those sure do look pretty in the jars. I used to make fun of my mom cause she would do that and now I am showing off my bottles to anyone that will look at them. I do HATE doing pears though! Good for you!

Melissa@thebblog said...

Looks good! I'm planning tomatoes next month - they are easier. Want to join me?

Janelle said...

I have never canned, never learned to do it, and have no where to store the food anyways.

My mom was a peach and pear canning woman. I remember looking at the wonderful bottles and thinking it was too much work. Our basement would have rows and rows of bottled fruit. I would be excited for the homemade salsa for sure. Good luck with that one!

Kara said...

You are such the perfect mom and wife!! I love it! I keep forgetting that you are pregnant again! Dang fertile mertile! :) How far along are you? I am so excited for you to have two kidlets running around! Any ideas of whether it is a boy or girl?

Julie and Todd said...

You're so ambitious! Todd keeps telling me he wants to can salsa and do all sorts of other things with our glorious garden goods. I think he might be clueless as to how hard anything with the word canning in it sounds to me! Way to go woman! You're an inspiration!